The purpose of this study is to explore the usage of social media by the healthcare institutions in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, the Philippines as a marketing communication and customer engagement tool through the lived experiences of their social media managers. Using a qualitative study approach and in-depth interviews, this research investigated the acceptance of social media by healthcare institutions as a marketing communication and customer engagement tool through the perceptions and lived experiences of their social media managers as well as their insights for recommendations on social media handling best practices. The data gathered from their interviews were then thematically analyzed. Accordingly, the social media managers revealed that Facebook is their social media platform of choice due to its popularity among Filipinos. They perceived their social media practices as possibly exhausting, having an easy service accessibility and communication, likely to boost their HCI’s services, faster health information sharing, and the probability of online bashing and security risks. Further, they experienced insufficient administrative support, appreciation from satisfied clients and negative feedback from disgruntled customers. Their insight on recommended best practices includes content enhancement, better engagement with users, frequent posting, hiring dedicated personnel for handling the HCI’s social media account, intervening during an online crisis and using social media as a supplement to traditional media. The results from this research may provide hospital administration with information for activity planning and improvement of social media handling. As far as the authors are aware, there is no published analysis on the experiences of social media managers of healthcare institutions of Tagum City.